Dekalb Market
138 Willoughby Street
at Flatbush Extension
Brooklyn, New York

The food from all of the vendors seemed great and there’s a lot of variety (think… the heavist soul food possible to specialty yogurt) but and I wasn’t looking to eat anything too heavy since I had only really began my journey for the day. I decided to order a taco from the Oaxaca stand.

For more, look below…

I stopped eating meat for the month of April and just haven’t picked it back up yet. At some point I’ll indulge in the greasiest chicken thigh ever fried but because I’m still trying to hold off on the meat, I ordered the Potato Poblano, a soft taco with potato, poblano peppers, pickeled onions, cilantro, avovado, lime, and salsa verde. That was probably the best soft taco I’ve ever had (not to be confused with the best hard shell taco I’ve ever had) and the first one that didn’t have meat or fish in it. Now that I know Oaxaca has good food, I can check out their 2 locations in Brooklyn or Manhattan.

I wish I’d picked up a card or something from the guys in the shipping container I got the Blueberry Mint Lemonade from . It was so pretty and just sweet enough. Below are a few more pics from the market.

If you haven’t already been to the market, pick a warm day to walk through. You can find out more about the market at DekalbMarket.com.

Cilantro Lime Shrimp

Prep: 10 min
Cook: 15 min
Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 jalapeno, finely chopped
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp. Mexican oregano
2 roma tomatoes, chopped
1 lime zest and juice
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 lb. uncooked shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 Tbsp. chopped cilantro

For the rest of the recipe and all of my changes, look below…

1. Melt the butter and oil in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat.

2. Add the garlic, onion, and jalapeno. Cook, stirring until the onion begins to wilt, approximately 3 minutes.

3. Add the red pepper flakes and oregano. Continue cooking until the onion becomes translucent, approximately 3 additional minutes.

4. Add the tomatoes. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes are soft.

5. Add the shrimp, zest, lime juice, salt, and pepper. Cook until the shrimp are just opaque. Be careful not to overcook.

6. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the cilantro.

Tips:
–I served this over a bed of Ronzoni Penne Pasta, the Boil-in-Bag kind. It was my first time using it and it was really easy and great for a recipe like this where the meal is only good for two servings, both of which may not be eaten all at once. The recipe said to eat with bread but that wouldn’t have been complete enough for me. When I ate the second serving, I made a slice of garlic bread on the side.

–I don’t buy jalapenos normally and didn’t buy one for this recipe. I’m still not used to cooking with red pepper flakes so even without the jalapeno, this dish was hot enough for me.

–I forgot to get a lime from the store so I used the lime juice I had in my fridge. I don’t know how much I used, I just sprinkled some in the pan where it said to add the zest. It was probably about 2 tablespoons.

–I didn’t have Mexican oregano in my cabinet so I used the… regular (??) oregano I had in my cabinet.

–I used vine tomatoes and I have no idea the difference in size between them and roma tomatoes so I used 3 instead of two because I figured it would make everything a bit more saucy. I like saucy food.

Even with all of my substitutions, this dish was amazing.

**This recipe is from LanasCooking.com**

Coconut Baked Fish

Prep Time: 20 min
Bake Time: 15 min
Yield: 8 Servings

Ingredients:
1/3 cup butter, melted
3 Tbsp. orange juice
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 tsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. ground ginger
1-2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 1/2 cups flaked coconut
1 cup dry bread crumbs
8 red snapper

I made this dish with a quinoa salad. For that recipe and the rest of this one, look below…

1. In a shallow bowl, combine the first eight ingredients. In another shallow bowl, combine coconut, and bread crumbs. Dip fillets in butter mixture, then coat with coconut mixture. Transfer to a baking pan coated with cooking spray.

2. Bake at 425°F for 15-20 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork.

Tips:

–The recipe called for 8 Red Snapper but I didn’t have that kind or that many pieces of fish in my freezer. I used 3 Swai fish fillets and that was enough for me. Since I didn’t have as much fish, I split the breading mix in half (3/4 cup of coconut and 1/2 cup bread crumbs).

–Remember those Chocolate Chip Quinoa Trail Mix Balls? Well that recipe called for unsweetened shredded coconut. Of course, I purchased sweetened coconut. I ended up using that for this fish recipe. It wasn’t bad but it gave the fish a spicy (because of the red pepper flakes) and sweet taste. If you’re into that kind of thing, stick with the sweetened shredded coconut.

–The recipe came with directions for a chutney sauce. The sauce included mayonnaise. I don’t like mayo. For those of you who like mayo:

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup mango chutney
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. curry powder
2. (con’t) Meanwhile, in a small bowl combine the sauce ingredients. Serve with fish.

In trying to decide what to make with the fish, I found a recipe through Pinterest for a cold quinoa salad. Since I had left over from the trail mix balls, I figured it might be a nice way to use it up. I made a bunch of alterations on that recipe though. I’ll give it to you the way I first read it though with my tips underneath.

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
1/2 cup chopped yellow onion
1 cup pre-washed quinoa
1-2/3 cups low sodium vegetable broth
1 tsp. salt, divided
1 cup chopped tomatoes, from 2 medium tomatoes
1-1/4 cups fresh cut cooked corn, from 2 cobs
2 scallions, white and green parts, finely sliced
1 small jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 Tbsp. lime juice, from 1 large lime
1 avocado, cut into bite-sized chunks

1. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a medium sauce pan over medium-low heat. Add onions and cook, stirring frequently, until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.

2. Add quinoa to onions and continue cooking, stirring constantly, for 3-4 minutes. Add vegetable broth and stir in 1/2 teaspoon salt. Turn heat up to high and bring to a boil. Cover pan tightly with lid, turn heat down to low and simmer for 17-20 minutes, until liquid is absorbed and quinoa is cooked. Transfer cooked quinoa to mixing bowl and chill in refrigerator.

3. When quinoa is cool, add remaining tablespoon olive oil, tomatoes, corn, scallions, jalapeno, cilantro, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and lime juice. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Right before serving, scatter avocado chunks over top.

Tips:
–This was only my second time working with quinoa.  I had no idea how to pre-wash it without sending it all down my kitchen sink drain so I didn’t even bother. (So what? I was even too tired to bother googling it)

–I can’t take too much spice so I left the jalapeno out.

–Scallions and onions are NOT the same. I didn’t want to put onions and spend extra money on scallions so I left them out.

–I didn’t even realize lime was listed until just now. I didn’t add it. (Ya know… if you guys make this the right way, it’s probably going to taste SOOOOO much different than when I made it.)

–Fresh corn? I worked a 9-hour day before going home to make this meal.  I used whatever frozen corn was leftover in my freezer.

–I couldn’t find low sodium vegetable broth in my local supermarket so I left that teaspoon of salt out completely. 

–I had cold spinach salad on the side and wanted the quinoa salad warm (since it seems so close to rice for me) so I fried the onion, then added the quinoa, then the vegetable broth as the recipe states.  I also added the corn at the same time, mixed it up, and covered it until all of the liquid was absorbed.  I scraped everything out of the pan into a dish, added the cilantro and tomato, then mixed it.  I sliced an avocado and placed it on top of that mound at the very end.

Good luck, all!  If any of you try the quinoa salad out, let me know in the comments.  I’d love to hear what you guys did. Did you follow my version or did you actually do what the recipe requires? Did you do your own thing? Let me know!

**The coconut fish recipe is from the August/September 2011 issue of Taste of Home magazine**
**The quinoa salad recipe is from SeriousEats.com**

Chocolate Chip Quinoa Trail Mix Balls

Prep + Cooling Time: 2 hours 30 min
Yield: ~30 Balls

Ingredients:
1 cup Old Fashioned Oats or quick cooking oats, dry
1/4 cup quinoa, dry
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup shredded coconut
1/3 cup unsalted sunflower seeds
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1 tsp. sea salt
1 Tbsp. peanut butter
1/3 cup honey

For the rest of the recipe, look below…

1. Combine the quinoa and water in a small saucepot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 10-12 minutes or until quinoa has absorbed all the liquid. Fluff and scoop quinoa into a large mixing bowl.

2. Add oats, coconut, sunflower seeds, and dried cranberries to quinoa and mix well.

3. Bring honey to a simmer in a small bot on the stove then stir in the vanilla extract. Pour on top of nuts and seeds. Mix until well combined.

4. Let mixture cool before adding the chocolate chips, peanut butter, and sea salt. Mix well with your hands so the peanut butter is evenly dispersed but be careful not to melt the chocolate chips.

5. Using wet hands, gently roll mixture into golf-sized balls. Place balls on a plate and chill for at least 2 hours until firm.

Tips:
–The original recipe actually calls for unsweetened coconut. I didn’t realize I picked up sweetened shredded coconut from the supermarket. I used it anyway and the… balls didn’t taste super sweet so I don’t think it makes much of a difference which you use.

–You can substitute or use a combination of dried cranberries with dried cherries or raisins. That portion is totally up to you.

–I don’t have sea salt anywhere in my kitchen. I told you guys I’m not a real chef. The recipe actually calls for sea salt but I used regular salt because I didn’t want to buy anything else for the recipe.

–Since this was my first time making this, I wasn’t sure if it was absolutely necessary to have dark chocolate chips or not so I just went along with the recipe. I think the dark chocolate chips taste much better than milk chocolate chips would have tasted but, I would have went with mini chocolate chips instead of the regular ones. If you’re a super-duper chocolate lover, you might want to just stick with the regular sized chips as well.

–If you decide to go with the mini chocolate chips, make sure you give the mixture extra time to cool completely before adding them. Since the chips are smaller, it will take even less heat for them to melt.

–The next time I try this, I might substitute some of the sunflower seeds for granola.

If any of you guys try this recipe with any of the alterations I listed or some of your own, let me know in the comments section.

Roasted Butternut Linguine

Prep Time: 10 min
Bake Time: 45 min
Yield: 4 Servings

Ingredients:
4 cups cubed peeled butternut squash
1 medium red onion, chopped
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1/2lb. uncooked linguine
2 cups shredded Swiss Chard
1 Tbsp. minced fresh sage
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper

For the rest of the recipe and all of my alterations, look below…

1. Place the squash and onion in a baking pan coated with cooking spray. Combine the oil and pepper flakes then drizzle over vegetables and toss to coat.

2. Bake, uncovered, at 350°F for 45-50 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally.

3. Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions; drain and place in a large bowl. Add the squash mixture, Swiss chard, sage, salt, and pepper; toss to combine.

Tips:

–The recipe requires sage but I forgot to get some from the supermarket when I made this dish. So, you can make this dish without it and it’ll still be tasty.

If any of you guys try this out, leave me a comment and let me know how it turned out.

**This recipe is from the August/September 2011 issue of Taste of Home magazine**

Sweet Potato & Black Bean Chili

Prep Time: 25 min
Cook Time: 35 min
Yield: 8 Servings

Ingredients:
3 large sweet potatoes (or 2-2 1/2 lbs.), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 large onion, chopped
1 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. chili powder
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 cans (15 oz. each) black beans, rinsed and drained
3 whole tomatoes
1/2 cup brewed coffee
2 Tbsp. honey
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper

For the rest of the recipe and all of my alterations, look below…

1. In a nonstick Dutch oven coated with cooking spray, saute sweet potatoes and onion in oil until crisp-tender. Add the chili powder, garlic, cumin, and cayenne; cook 1 minute longer. Stir in the beans, tomatoes, coffee, honey, salt, and pepper.

2. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer on low heat for 30-35 minutes or until sweet potatoes are tender.

Tips:

–The recipe actually calls for “1 can (28oz.) of diced tomatoes, undrained,” but after reading about this some time ago, I began substituting for real tomatoes whenever possible.

–If you do decide to go with real diced tomatoes, (1) prepare a pot of rapidly boiling water and a bowl of ice cold water, (2) place the tomatoes in the pot of boiling water. After 10-15 minutes (maybe sooner) the skin on the tomatoes will split. (3) Using a slotted spoon, fish the tomatoes out and plunge them into the ice water. (4) When the tomatoes are cool, pul them out, peel, and dice. They’ll be ready to prepare the chili with.

–The recipe also calls for only “1/4 cup brewed coffee” but I ended up adding about 1/2 cup. Use your descretion based on whether you want the dish juicier or not. With the 1/2 cup, it was still pretty stiff.

–I also left out the “1/2 cup shredded reduced-fat Monteray Jack cheese or reduced-fat Mexican cheese blend” because I don’t eat very much cheese. The only cheese I have in my fridge now is cream cheese and I barely ever eat that. The last step was to sprinkle the pot with cheese at the very end.

If any of you guys try this out, leave me a comment and let me know how it turned out.

**This recipe is TasteofHome.com**

There will be four hour-long classes starting at 4pm and they’re all first come, first served. Plus, when you spend $10 or more on a beauty purchase, you’ll receive a free gift.

For more info on this event, the T-World event at Reed Space, and Brooklyn Museum’s First Saturday, look below…

Urban Outfitters and Miss Pop Nail Art Party
Thursday, May 3, 2012
4pm-8pm
526 Avenue of the Americas at 14th Street
New York, NY

Later on Thursday evening is the T-World event at Reed Space.

T-World New York Event
Thursday, May 3, 2012
7p-10p
Reed Space
151 Orchard Street
btwn Rivington and Stanton
LES, NY
RSVP: TWorld@StapleDesign.com

It really does feel like It was just the first Saturday of April and the first Saturday of May is only 3 days away. That means that the Target sponsored, day long event at the Brooklyn Museum will be completely free and open to the public.

The Keith Haring exhibit will be going on for another 2 months in case you haven’t already seen it (or want to see it again) and Heather Hart’s installation “The Eastern Oracle: We Will Tear the Roof Off the Mother” (which was LOUDLY being built the last time I was at the museum) will be open for climbing on Saturday as well.

For more details, click here.

After dancing your evening away at the museum, make sure to find a good fight party to finish the night off as the Mayweather vs. Cotto fight starts at 10pm. It will be Mayweathers final fight before starting his 90-day jail sentence on a domestiv violence charge.

Saturda, May 5th is, obviously, CINCO DE MAYO!! So, for all you drinkers, be careful out there.

That’s so exciting!! You do remember Naked Hearts, right?

For a better look at Superbad, the crocodile tail and sting ray skinned pin, look below…

For more from Naked Hearts and to shop the collection, visit NKDHearts.com.

The Staten Island bred twins opened their first restaurant along side Alvin Wray less than a year ago and just about everywhere I’ve read about the place has described it as… “stoner food.” Weird mixes like Jerk Chicken Nuggest and Mac ‘n’ Cheese Balls are signatures so I was eager to see what the hype was about.

Dee and Ricky’s Homecooking
504 Myrtle Avenue
btwn Ryerson and Grand Avenue
Clinton Hills, Brooklyn

For my review and pics from dinner, look below…

The above pic was of the Mac ‘n’ Cheese Balls which is macaroni and cheese breaded into the shape of a ball and then fried. Baked macaroni and cheese was something that I grew up with. My mom didn’t always make it but it was something I looked forward to eating during the holidays. It’s also something that I can’t eat everywhere. I’m weary about eating other peoples baked mac and cheese, collard greens, potato salad, and macaroni salad. So, I’m not sure if I didn’t like the… BALLS (hehehe) because I’m finicky about my mac and cheese or because it actually did need some more salt. And different cheese. And maybe could’ve been cooked harder. It was a really nice idea though and the other girls enjoyed it.

Maddy ordered the Shrimp Roti. She said it was good and would probably end up giving birth to a 6-month premature “food baby” because of it. That’s a good thing.

In the right hand corner of the screen is the October 2011 issue of Paper magazine which featured the twins. I brought it along to show the girls. They didn’t know who I was talking about when I told them where we’d be eating.

Dayani ordered the Jerk Lollipop Drumsticks with a side of rice and peas and collard greens. She took a bite of the collard greens and said they were bitter. It was her first time having collard greens so I tasted them so I’d be able to gauge for her. Ehh… I’ve had better and I can definitely make them better on my own but they weren’t bad. I kind of felt bad later on during dinner for criticizing the food since the chef was so nice. More about that later, though.

Since I’ve switched up my eating habits for the month of April, I didn’t have too many options (I’m abstaining from pork, beef, chicken, and turkey). I was a little tempted to order the Chicken and Jamaican White Rum Infused Waffles but opted for a Salmon Burger and Sweet Potato Fries. The burger came with Srirachi Mayo on the side but I’m not big on white sauces (yes, that includes mayo. I eat ALL of my sandwiches dry and have since I was a child) so I didn’t bother with it. The burger was cooked perfectly and the fries were probably the best I’ve had anywhere. They tasted incredibly fresh and weren’t fried that hard so I was more than pleased with them.

Mike, our server was absolutely wonderful and answered all of our questions the best he could… ya know… being a white boy from Ohio. I felt a little bad half way through dinner for criticizing the collard greens and mac and cheese so harshly because when Dayani began asking questions about plantains (which she’d never had before), Mike brought us a plate. A little while later, the chef sent over a plate of Rum Raisin Bread Pudding made with corn meal. Mannnn… it was AMAZING. That’s one of the things that you think about mid-day and imagine walking all the way to a place for. I would go back JUST for that and an order of sweet potato fries.

Overall, dinner was good. I’ll probably be going back because (1) it’s super close to my house, (2) the bread pudding and sweet potato fries were just perfect, (3) and our entire meal was just under $55. Not bad at all.

For a look at the full menu, click here.

HAPPY EATING!